Gelato On The Sidewalk

Today was a big day.  I broke down and bought a handy (aka cell phone).  Although I was really enjoying the freedom of not having a phone and it is definitely possible to get by without one, I thought it was time to make myself available to the world.  Handys are great here.  No contracts, no salesperson, and very inexpensive.  Well, if you make your purchase at the grocery store like I did.  My number is too long to remember and the phone looks older than our first "family" cell phone.  I haven't brought myself to turn it on yet, but when I do I have a feeling it will take me more than a couple minutes to change the language setting from German to English.
I can't see myself being disappointed by anything in Garmisch.  The bars have no closing time, the people are overly nice, and the scenery is beautiful.  Danielle (the roommate, who by the way is awesome!) and I went on a nice little date to The Lodge where we were both surprised by the side dish I received with my tomato and mozzarella sandwich.  Doritos!  Not just any Doritos either, they were cooler ranch!  But our first disappointment occurred shortly after dinner when we decided to go into town for gelato.  Danielle's scoop of gelato slid right off of her cone onto the perfect sidewalk of Garmisch.  It was tragic, but luckily she and the gelato boy shared a moment of bad translation.  Several smiles later she got her new ice cream...free of charge!  Leave it up to the cute high school gelato boy to turn our sad story around.  
Getting settled into the dorm lifestyle hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be.  It is loud and it is inconvenient, but at the same time a lot of fun.  I feel like I'm a freshman at IU all over again!   Another great roommate (shout out to Kassy) and many of my friends a quick walk down the hall make it really easy to find something to do anytime of the day.  Our housing complex, the Abrams, used to be an old German military hospital aka Nazi central.  Most of it has been renovated, but some walls still have creepy murals depicting strange things from men in their underwear to a weird goat creature.  I would describe them better if I could...pictures soon to come.  Our bare walls and badly arranged furniture make the room seem temporary, but hopefully over the next 13 months we can make this place feel a little bit more like home.  I did just hang a calendar by the door...one step closer!